


In Which Yang Is a Dragon

by TheDisloyalOne



Category: RWBY
Genre: All the Cools, Gen, How cool is that, Implied Relationships, Multi, RWBY - Freeform, RWBY Big Bang, SO COOL, Slow Burn, Team CFVY - Freeform, Team RWBY - Freeform, Yang is a drAGON
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-24
Updated: 2017-03-24
Packaged: 2018-10-08 17:08:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10391715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDisloyalOne/pseuds/TheDisloyalOne
Summary: This story follows Yang as an actual Chinese Dragon, living in the mountains above a village where Mercury and Emerald live. She begins to suspect the two are up to something, and investigates. Meanwhile, Team CFVY make an appearance as Dragon Hunters.





	

**Author's Note:**

> My contribution to the RWBY Big Bang! Shoutout to Samurithecat who made some art to go along with this: http://samurithecat.tumblr.com/post/158650158550/heres-one-of-two-pieces-for-my-contribution-for
> 
> Also, I'll be updating the story with new chapters eventually, so you can look forward to that. I mean, hopefully you'll look forward to it.

The sun was rising over a small village nestled deep in a peaceful mountain range. Yang Xiao Long uncurled from her sleeping position, stretching her legs with a huge yawn. She lumbered out of the cave she lived in, peering out over the landscape before her. The hills were littered with clumps of trees and boulders, sprawling down to the river village at the bottom of the mountain.  _ Her  _ mountain -- Yang Xiao Long, the Little Light Dragon’s, mountain. That was how she saw it, anyway. In truth, not many people believed in dragons anymore, and of those who did, even fewer knew Yang Xiao Long lived up on the mountain. Still, she had been living here for centuries, and in her mind, she as good as owned it. 

Every now and then, when she got bored, Yang Xiao Long would go for a flight around the area, observing the townspeople. There was one family she particularly enjoyed watching, at the edge of the village. She would set down in a clump of trees, hiding herself carefully. Then she would wait for the humans’ shenanigans to begin -- and she didn’t have to wait long. More often than not, the boy would be thrown out of the house for some act of mischievousness, closely followed by the girl. She was practically his sister, the way she hung out with him every day, and most nights too. They were renowned in the area for their trouble making, pulling pranks around the village, getting in trouble for shoplifting; even their guardians (they didn’t have parents) ended up kicking them out of the house at some point in the day. 

_ Actually, _ Yang Xiao Long mused,  _ he’s not a boy anymore. And she’s not a girl either. _

It was true. The boy had grown into a man, tall, muscular, and handsome, with shaggy silver hair hanging over his eyes. And the girl was now a woman, curvaceous and pretty, with mint-green hair that fell to her waist. The pair’s wild capers had grown less frequent, and gradually they had begun contributing more to the good of the village. They still pulled the occasional prank now and then, but they had undeniably become more responsible and mature. Yang Xiao Long had noticed this, but realised that it was by no means a result of good parenting; quite the opposite, in fact. 

Yang Xiao Long had had the amusing opportunity to meet the boy and girl’s guardians twice -- and both times involved the law. Without a doubt, the children's guardians were the most unsavory pair in the land. The first time Yang Xiao Long had seen them, the village’s Hunter was escorting them home in handcuffs, after they had been caught robbing a gem store. The second time, they had been in an armed fight with soldiers, who had attempted to arrest them for disturbing the peace. Their wards, who Yang Xiao Long was certain weren’t their biological children, watched and learned from the ruffians, following their example concerning the law. 

Yang Xiao Long wasn’t sure why the boy and girl were becoming less of a nuisance. They had no one to teach them proper behavior, at least not that she had seen. Yet there they were, contributing to society as well as any other respectable person living in the village. Perhaps it just came with growing up? Humans developed so much differently from dragons, Yang Xiao Long couldn’t be sure. 

Yang Xiao Long touched lightly down behind the house that she had spent so much time watching. She had just gotten into a comfortable position when the door opened, and the boy -- who was a man now -- strode out, hands resting behind his head. He was followed by the girl -- woman -- who was trying to hide a smile. 

“It’s not funny, Mercury. My best friend was eaten by a tiger.”

Laughing, the man replied, “You don’t have any friends, besides me.”

The woman rolled her eyes. “That’s not true! I had this rabbit when I was four. Her name was Emmy Junior. She was my best friend.”

“Emmy Junior?” Mercury raised an eyebrow. “As in Emerald Junior? You named her after yourself?” 

The woman snorted. “I wasn’t the most creative kid. What would you have named a bunny when you were four?”

Mercury pretended to think about her question for a minute. “Hmm...maybe something like, ‘Tiger Chow.’”

Emerald punched his shoulder, holding back a laugh. “That’s not funny either!” 

The couple was walking into the village, away from Yang Xiao Long, so the dragon silently stood up and launched herself into the sky. Part of a dragon’s magic is that they could turn invisible to the human eye, if they so desired. This is what Yang Xiao Long did as she followed Mercury and Emerald from above, watching them approach a hut. She touched down noiselessly, peering through the solitary window in the house at the pair. They were hunched over a small table, looking at a sheet of paper -- a map? -- with another woman that Yang Xiao Long hadn’t ever seen before. The dragon was surprised, and slightly annoyed, that someone had come to her mountain without her knowing it. Perhaps she was getting old. 

_ No, I’m only 765 years old...I think. Unless I missed a few years. Anyway, I’m just a kid.  _ 765 dragon years was equal to 17 human years.  _ I must be getting careless.  _

In the ages past, Yang Xiao Long had taken care to watch anyone who traveled on her mountain. Most people (who believed in dragons) respected the great dragons and honored them as gods -- though they weren’t -- but there was the occasional foreigner who preferred to slay dragons. Or at least, they would try to. Most weren’t successful, since dragons, of course, were huge and strong, and had magical abilities, while humans were tiny, weak, and most lacked magic powers. 

Still, there had been two or three humans who had succeeded in killing a dragon. Special ‘Chosen Ones,’ who had been blessed by a magical being of some sort. They became legends, although they all died young, and their stories went down in history. Their great quests to travel across the world and hunt down a great serpent, retold more extravagantly every time. Yang Xiao Long had heard of her father’s friend’s friend, who was slain by a dragon hunter a few decades before Yang Xiao Long was born. The dragons said it had been a shockingly fierce battle, with the human finally coming out on top, although no one knew how that was even possible. Yang Xiao Long had once asked her father how a human could defeat a dragon when it was so small compared to them. He had told her it must have had some sort of magical assistance. Ever since then, Yang Xiao Long had been careful to watch for anyone who looked like they might like to kill a dragon, but apparently she had become negligent in her observations. She would have to watch even more vigilantly. 

Inside the hut, Mercury and Emerald were deep in conversation with the mysterious woman. Yang Xiao Long inspected the woman closely. She had pink-and-brown hair, split down the middle, and she was dressed in a pristine white coat, with pink and brown trim. She reminded Yang Xiao Long of...something. Someone. She couldn’t quite put her finger -- er, claw --  on it, but the dragon was sure the stranger seemed familiar. Somehow. 

Mercury stood up, stretching his arms above his head. His shirt lifted up slightly, revealing hard, chiseled abdominal muscles; a result of years of hard work in the rice fields around the village, no doubt, although Yang Xiao Long wasn’t sure what the humans did in them. Especially Mercury, since he was known more for his pranks than his farming skills. Still, if Yang Xiao Long had been human, she was sure she would have been attracted to the boy. By human standards, he was quite handsome -- perhaps even what they called a “pretty boy.” But Yang Xiao Long was a dragon, and what were humans to a dragon, other than a mere form of entertainment? Humans are certainly smart creatures, but nowhere near as intelligent as dragons. 

_ What sets them apart, though,  _ Yang Xiao Long mused,  _ is that humans have souls. Other animals do not, and that does make humans different.  _ Perhaps she would have to adjust her view of humans. 

Emerald was standing up too, cracking her knuckles. 

“So, are we ready?”

Drat. Yang Xiao Long had missed the conversation, too absorbed in her own thoughts. She really did have a tendency to get distracted. What was it that the trio was planning? Would it be as big as their other pranks? 

Mercury shrugged. “Ready as we’ll ever be, I guess. Neo, once you’re in place, wait for the signal.”

The stranger -- Neo -- rolled her eyes, smirking. She stood up, grabbing a parasol, and nodded. 

“Good,” Emerald said. “Then let’s go.”

Emerald and Mercury left the hut, but Neo stayed. When the door had closed, she pulled the curtains across the windows, and pushed the table aside. Beneath it was a trapdoor -- and a tunnel. The woman climbed down into the tunnel, pulling the trapdoor shut above her. Double drat. Now Yang Xiao Long wouldn’t be able to follow her. She would have to settle for following Mercury and Emerald. Although to be fair, they would probably be far more interesting than Neo’s trek through a tight tunnel, but Yang Xiao Long was anxious to know who she really was, and how she had gotten onto her mountain. 

_ Actually, the tunnel probably goes much farther than I thought. _ That could be a problem. 

The dragon flew up into the air, trailing her quarries. They were sauntering through the center of the village, seemingly up to nothing. A couple people greeted them cheerfully; apparently Mercury and Emerald had become much less of a nuisance than when they were kids. Yang Xiao Long was impressed. 

A sudden disturbance behind the pair caused the dragon to turn. She groaned inwardly. It was Mercury and Emerald’s guardians, staggering out of an alcohol joint and shouting at Mercury and Emerald. Mercury acted like he didn’t hear them, continuing to stroll down the street. Emerald turned, though, and looked at her guardians. 

“Cinder...Roman...what do you want?” 

The woman, Cinder, stopped a few feet away from Emerald, clutching a bottle of some kind of cheap booze. She was barely standing up, but she jabbed a finger at Emerald. “What’re you two brats up to, hah?”

Mercury stopped, but didn’t turn around. “Emerald, come on. If we’re late, Neo will miss the cue.” 

Emerald turned back toward Mercury, and, with a glance back at Cinder, walked after him. Roman lurched after them, shouting. 

“Now listen here, you little punks! Y-yer -- Cinder asked you a question, dammit! What do you think yer doin’, huh?”

Several of the townspeople had gathered, and now they caught hold of Roman and Cinder. They held the drunken rapscallions back, attempting to restrain them. One of them called to Mercury to wait up. 

The boy reluctantly walked back to the crowd. 

“I’m sorry about them. I try to tell them to stay out of drinking holes, but they’re really too stubborn to listen.”

“Yeah, well, what are we supposed to do with them?”

Mercury sighed. “Just throw them in a cell for a while,” he suggested. “Get the hunter to take care of them.” He rubbed his neck. “Look, I’m really sorry about this. Normally, I’d do something about them, but today I have something I really need to take care of. Just do me a favor and hold them, okay?”

The villager agreed, and Mercury and Emerald continued on their way. Yang Xiao Long followed. 

She wasn’t sure yet what Mercury and Emerald were up to, but she was sure it would be big. She was also sure that they would have taken care of their guardians, Cinder and Roman, if they weren’t up to something big; that’s just who they were. They had grown up. Matured. They took responsibility -- but that just meant that whatever they had planned would be big.

Yang Xiao Long couldn’t wait to see what it was. 

 

The sun was going down when Mercury and Emerald reached their destination. Yang Xiao Long flew down and rested on a boulder. A large one. Because, you know, she was a dragon. 

While Yang Xiao Long rested on her boulder, she observed the pair of young adults. They were in front of a cave, one that Yang Xiao Long had explored many years ago and found quite boring. It was your typical cave, with its fair share of stalagmites and stalactites, not to mention bat guano. It wasn’t enormous, but big enough that a dragon could crawl through it was ease. It went fairly far back, but not so far that you wouldn’t be able to hear someone if they shouted from the entrance. There was a stream leading to a pool of water in the cave, toward the back. As far as Yang Xiao Long knew, there weren’t any tunnels that led into the cave, and no people lived in it. In fact, no one really came up here at all, not even the more rambunctious children of the    village. 

Well, she hadn’t thought anyone came up here. And yet, standing in the opening of the cave, was the woman from before. Neo. The one that Yang Xiao Long had never seen before. The dragon was getting very annoyed with her. She didn’t like not knowing something, especially things to do with HER mountain. And who was traveling on it. 

Neo stood with her arms crossed and legs apart. She was just a silhouette against the light coming from the cave. Mercury stopped in front of her, resting one hand on his hip. 

“Been waiting long?”

Neo shook her head. 

“Good,” Emerald said. “Has anyone been up here?”

Neo shook her head again.

“Even better. Is everything ready?” Mercury asked.

Neo nodded her head. 

“Alright then. Let’s head in.” Mercury led the others into the cavern, and Yang Xiao Long slipped down behind them. The humans strode all the way to the back, but the dragon had to crawl, which slowed her down. She examined the cave; it had obviously been changed since she last came. The walls were strung with paper lanterns, and a glowing crystal powder coated the stalagmites. A path was well-worn, leading to the rear of the cave. 

As Yang Xiao Long approached the very back, she saw several trap doors in the floor of the cave. She was wrong -- someone had made tunnels up to the cave. Mercury, Emerald, and Neo were standing over a trapdoor. 

Mercury looked thoughtful. He turned to Emerald and asked, “Once we’re gone, what do you think will happen to this place?”

Emerald looked at him. “Well. I expect it will be forgotten again, until some kid stumbles upon it.”

Mercury nodded. “Yeah. You’re probably right.” 

The group was silent for a minute before Mercury spoke up again. “You know, we’ve had a lot of good times up here.” 

They had? That was news to Yang Xiao Long. Had she not been watching them as closely as she thought? She did her best to monitor the people on the mountain, but maybe she wasn’t as punctilious as she thought. 

“Yeah,” Emerald responded, “but we’ll have much better times once we get out of here.”

Wait. They were leaving? Why? Where were they going? The dragon had so many questions, but she couldn’t ask them without making her presence known to the trio in front of her. 

Well, so what? What harm would it do to reveal herself? It wasn’t like the entire town was here. And she had spent getting to know the children. Or at least, observing them. 

But wait. What about the woman. Neo. What if she was a dragon hunter? The children seemed to trust her. But that didn’t mean she didn’t keep things from them. Maybe it had never come up that she hunted dragons. She was probably a distinguished dragon hunter, with several dragon heads mounted on her wall at home. 

Wait. Yang Xiao Long’s father had said only two hunters had ever succeeded in killing a dragon. She probably had nothing to worry about. 

Hold on. Mercury was lifting the trapdoor. Beneath it were -- 

Fireworks? That was...odd. What kind of prank were they planning? 

Hold up. What if wasn’t a prank? What if -- what if the reason they were leaving was because they were going commit some huge crime? Maybe the fireworks were a distraction. 

_ Oh, stop it,  _ Yang Xiao Long told herself.  _ You’re just being paranoid. First the lady’s a dragon hunter, now the kids you’ve known all their lives are criminals? Please.  _

Still, Cinder and Roman weren’t the most savory couple. It was possible their wicked ways had rubbed off on the kids. But how could the dragon be sure? And what could she do about it? 

Yang Xiao Long’s eyelids were growing heavy. The temperature in the cave and the dim light from the paper lanterns were making her drowsy. Mercury and Emerald were still talking, but it was becoming a murmur that Yang Xiao Long couldn’t discern. She needed to get out of the cave -- she couldn’t afford for the group to stumble across her. But why was she so sleepy? 

She crawled backward, hurrying to get out of the cavern. Her vision was clouding, her head spinning. The dragon stumbled out of the cave, spinning and jumping into the air. She tried to fly, but fell to the ground, exhausted. She groaned and dragged herself behind a small clump of trees, before succumbing to the blackness. 

 

Yang Xiao Long blearily cracked open her eyes, peering weakly at the bright sunlight shining on her face. The sun was high up in the middle of the sky, and the dragon clawed her drowsiness away to try to figure out where she was. What had happened? How had she ended up in a pile of broken tree limbs and crushed bushes? She tried to recall the previous night. It was a strain to remember even the vaguest detail. There was something about a cave, and the children -- and a stranger? 

It all rushed back to her. She remembered the woman called Neo, the trip to the cave, and the strange supplies that Mercury and Emerald had stockpiled. After, that, Yang Xiao Long wasn’t sure what had happened. There had been something in the air, something that took her energy away. But what could do such a thing? Perhaps a spellcaster of some kind had worked some magic that had such an effect. But dragons were supposed to be immune to human spells. How could she have been affected by such magic? 

Unless it was a magic that targeted dragons. 

But there weren’t any humans that knew yang Xiao Long existed. 

Right? 

Yang Xiao Long was worried. For the first time in centuries, she was worried. 

Was it possible that someone knew about her -- knew that a dragon lived in the mountains above the Tiny Village in the North? Was it possible that someone…could see her? 

Yes, Yang Xiao Long was worried. And when a dragon is worried, it gets very, very dangerous. 

 

In a hidden glen on the other side of the mountain, four people were gathered around a smoldering campfire. They were each prepping weapons, preparing for a fight. One, a enormous man with broad shoulders and huge muscles, was sharpening a long, curved golden sword. Beside him, a slim but strong young man with orange hair and scars covering his arms, had two curved blades attached to his gauntlets. He was sitting cross-legged on a smooth boulder, eyes closed. 

Leaning on a tree across the firepit from him, a woman with a gold and orange braid wiped black aviator shades on the hem of her shirt. She had a large, shining minigun on the ground next to her feet, with a leather sack full of bullet shells leaning on it. 

The fourth person, a young woman with a hood covering her head, sat on a log by the embers, fidgeting with her long robe. She had a thick book on her lap, with fancy lettering on the cover. 

The boy with orange hair stood up, his cloudy gray eyes opening. 

“The dragon is near.”

The girl with the braid stretched her arms, turning to look at him. 

“How close?”

“Mile and a half. Northwest.” 

The other two stood up, the big one swinging his massive sword into its sheath on his back. The girl with the braid nodded at the orange-haired boy. 

“Good job, Fox.” She turned to the others. “Are we all ready? Good.”

The group turned in the direction Fox had indicated. 

“Then let’s go slay a dragon.” 

 

The sun was slowly slinking below the mountaintops. Somehow, Yang Xiao Long had summoned up the strength to crawl back to her cave atop the mountain. She lay collapsed in the entrance, still feeling weak. Despite having thought long and hard about how any human could know of her existence, she had come up with no answers and was still as mystified as she had been that morning. Her strength was beginning to come back, slowly; she was relieved at that, but wished she would just get back to normal already. If something happened, and she was still this incapacitated, there was no telling what might happen. She was nervous, and thin wisps of nervous smoke began to float out of her nostrils. 

The dragon’s eyelids were getting heavy, and she was just starting to nod off when a sharp whistle pierced the silence, followed by a loud booming sound and a crackling. Yang Xiao Long’s head shot up, her eyes snapping open. Her talons scraped the stone she lay on, as she looked out at what had caused the sound. 

Bright colorful sparks trailed down from the sky, flickering out and vanishing. Two more whistles split the evening, and Yang Xiao Long saw two tiny objects shatter into thousands of glittering sparks. Fireworks. She had never understood humans’ fascination with the exploding inventions. She could make her own showers of sparks, without needing to tinker with powders and papers and whatever else went into making the noisy things. Although, perhaps the allure lay in humanity’s inability to perform such basic feats. Certainly, in the time that Yang Xiao Long had lived near the creatures, she had never seen a single one of them create fire the way all dragons could. 

Another explosion near Yang Xiao Long jarred her from her thoughts. An increasing amount of fireworks were whistling into the sky, and distant sounds of people shouting drifted up to the dragon. She peered down at the village, where a large crowd was forming in the main street. A quick appraisal of the land below her revealed that the fireworks were coming from a rocky hill just outside the village -- close to the cave where Yang Xiao Long had followed Mercury and Emerald the previous day. She suddenly remembered her suspicions about the children. What were they up to? Could it  be they really were plotting some nefarious scheme? 

Her eyes were drawn suddenly to four figures standing at the edge of the village. She couldn’t make out any details, given the distance, but the way they stood gave her the impression that they were not anyone she had seen around the town. Were they related to the mysterious woman Mercury and Emerald had been speaking with? Yang Xiao Long pushed herself to her feet and flew a little bit down her mountain, wanting to get a better look. As she swirled downward, the four strangers began to move up the mountain, toward a small clearing a little way from the village outskirts. When they reached the middle of the clearing, they stopped. Yang Xiao Long crept over boulders to get close to them, stopping just at the edge of the clearing. 

She could see that the four strangers were well-armed, except for a girl holding a thick tome. There were two young men and one other young woman standing beside the girl with the book. A humongous shiny minigun sat on the grass at the feet of the other woman -- a newfangled contraption presumably from the big cities East of the mountains. 

The shorter of the two men suddenly turned to the woman with the gun. 

“Coco, the dragon!”

The woman -- Coco -- looked sharply at him. “Where?”

“Right behind you!” he answered, pointing directly at Yang Xiao Long. 

The group turned to look in her direction, scanning the area with confused expressions on their faces. The taller man glanced at the other one, gripping his giant golden sword tightly. 

“Fox, we can’t see it.” His voice was deep and alert, as his eyes continued to dart around, trying to find the dragon. 

Fox put his hand on the arm of the girl with the tome. “Velvet, cast your Make The Unseen Seen spell. Right...there!” 

He pointed at the apparently empty air, but as Velvet raised her hand, beams of energy emerging from her palm, the magic slowly began to reveal the form of a dragon before them. 

Yang Xiao Long stood in front of the party, towering high above them. She didn’t know what to do -- humans, strangers from outside the village, could somehow, impossibly, see her. Despite her invisibility magic, the four humans were looking directly at her, their mouths agape. The one with the gun gulped, whispering, “We-we may have underestimated the size of that thing.” 

Her companions nodded, clutching their weapons. 

“Oh...oh man.”

“Great Oum help us.”

“Well, fuck.” 


End file.
